July-September, 2004
September
A 47 year old woman is suing her obstetrician because he did not
recommend prenatal screening tests and the woman gave birth to a boy with
Down's Syndrome. The defence argues that the woman first saw her doctor when
it was already too late to have a legal abortion in Singapore.[Borneo
Bulletin, 30 September]
On 11 October Wisconsin pharmacist Neil Noesen will face a disciplinary
hearing for refusing to dispense oral contraceptives because of his
religious convictions. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin is actively opposing
freedom of conscience among health care professionals in the state. [Police
used to intimidate objecting pharmacist]
A Laconia, New Hamphsire pharmacist who refused to fill a prescription for
the potentially abortifacient morning after pill was the subject of a
complaint to Foster's Sunday Citizen, a local newspaper. Pharmacist Todd
Sklencar suggested that she try another pharmacy but did not identify a
specific location. The woman returned to the drive-in counter with her
father but was again refused. An internet query discloses the addresses and
directions to four different pharmacies within two and a half miles of
Laconia, including the pharmacy where Sklencar was working, so the woman's
second visit to the pharmacy and complaint to the media seems to have been a
deliberate attempt to embarrass or coerce the objector rather than a
desperate effort to obtain a necessary medical service.
Professor Ian Wilmut of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute, has applied for
permission to clone human embryos from the cells of Motor Neuron Disease
patients so that the embryos can be used in researching the disease. They
will then be destroyed. [BBC]
Although a Guernsey committee rejected legalization of euthanasia, Health
Minister Peter Roffey wrote a minority report in favour of it, and a local
politician has called for a referendum on the issue. Among their opponents
are a Guernsey physician, Dr. Susan Wilson, and Cindy Kennedy of Channel
Islands Right to Life [BBC, 21 September, 23 September] [The Guernsey Press,
27 September]
The Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care will hold an international
conference on palliative care for the terminally ill to take place in Rome
on November 11-13. The conference will examine the Christian understanding
of suffering, pain control and the pastoral, spiritual and psychological
needs of patients facing death, and will include inter-religious dialogue
with representatives of Hinduism, Islam, Judaeism and Buddhism.
http://www.healthpastoral.org/events/index.html
A debate on a bill that would allow abortion on demand up to the 12th week
of gestation has been delayed for a month. The bill was proposed by Poland's
Democratic Left Alliance, and, absent some kind of protection for
conscientious objectors, would likely have an adverse impact on freedom of
conscience in health care [Warsaw Business Journal, 22 September].
Dr Hazel Biggs, Director of medical law at Kent University, used date from
other countries to assert that about 20,000 terminally ill patients are
'helped to die' by their doctors each year in the United Kingdom. Her claims
were made before a House of Lords committee studying a euthanasia bill [The
Scotsman, 20 September] and are considered questionable by the bill's
opponents. [Catholic Communications Service, 21 September]15 September, 2004
Reports in Our Sunday Visitor revealed that two Catholic hospitals
induce will labour at about 23-26 weeks in the case of infants suffering
from birth defects that would result in death soon after a full term birth.
Anencephaly and renal agenesis (underdeveloped kidneys and lungs) are the
most common diagnoses that lead to the procedure. Neither condition normally
presents a health risk to the mother, though the practice s being defended
on grounds that the mother's "mental health" is at risk. The report states
that the babies are "made comfortable" until death, and may die in their
mothers' arms. The reports have generated considerable controversy within
the Catholic community because of the similarity of the procedure to
'genetic terminations', in which labour is induced in the case of severely
handicapped infants, who are then left to die [Loyola
Confident, Others Troubled] [When
Birth Means Death]. They illustrate that health care workers in
denominational institutions may face conflicts of conscience, which can be
exacerbated by the fact that their difference may be with their own
denominational authorities.
The British Medical Journal reports that Dutch paediatricians want
deaths of babies born with severe multiple handicaps reported to a committee
of doctors and lawyers rather than the coroner's office. Research suggests
that about 80 disabled infants die each year as the result of the
withholding of treatment, while about 20 are killed by lethal
injection.[BMJ, 11 September]
A Spanish film about the suicide of a tetraplegic sailor has added fuel to
the euthanasia debate in Spain. The Sea Inside is a Spanish movie
about sailor Ramon Sampedro, who killed himself by drinking potassium
cyanide after an unsuccessful right-to-die campaign. He had been paralysed
from the neck down. Prime Minister Zapatero described the film as "a hymn to
life" because it defended "the freedom to die." The emotional appeal of such
films can generate calls to legalize procedures that will pose conflicts of
conscience for health care workers.
Professor John Harris of Manchester University, speaking in favour of
Lord Joffe's euthanasia bill before a House of Lords Committee, claimed that
no one he knew would object to a policeman killing a man trapped in a
burning vehicle who asked to be shot. He did not explain what position he
would take with respect to a policeman who refused to obey an order to shoot
a man in that situation.
The parents of a learning-disable girl who is paralyzed from the legs down
are suing their obstetrician, claiming that they were deprived of the
opportunity to abort her because they were not told about prenatal tests
that could have detected spina bifida. The threat of such lawsuits has
become a means to coerce physicians who object to eugenic practices for
reasons of conscience.
Canadian women from Ontario and Quebec are sent to the United States for
late term abortions because there are not enough doctors in Canada willing
to perform the procedure. The abortions are paid for by the provincial
health plans. The practice illustrates how demand for controversial medical
procedures can be accommodated without suppressing freedom of conscience
among health care workers. [CBC]
The Mental Capacity Bill, which critics assert would effectively legalize
euthanasia for incompetent patients, has attracted protests from Dr Helen
Watt of the Linacre Centre, Dr Nigel Cameron of the Centre for Bioethics and
Public Policy, Dr. David Jones, senior lecturer in bioethics at St Mary's
University College, Surrey [The Guardian, 7 September], Francis Bennion,
author of Professional Ethics: the Consultant Professions and their Code,
and Laurence Oates, the Official Solicitor who represents the mentally
incapacitated [The Times of London, 8 September]. The director of Changing
Perspectives, a disability rights organization, has also spoke out against
the bill. [The Guardian, 10 September]
In July, congressmen Dave Weldon (R-FL) and Henry Hyde (R-IL)
introduced an amendment to a bill funding the departments of Labor and
Health and Human Services to protect heath care providers and professionals
who refuse to "provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for
abortion." The amendment would prohibit federal funds from being paid to any
government agency that discriminated against such persons or entities. The
bill now faces a House-Senate conference committee.
Moving in advance of the Netherland, where euthanasia protocols for children
have not yet been publicly disclosed, two members of the ruling Flemish
Liberal Party have introduced a bill that would extend the legalization of
euthanasia to children and teenagers, as well as permitting physician
assisted suicide.
In 2002, Catholic gym teacher Gerard C. O'Brien launched a civil action
against the Springfield Education Association, Massachusetts Teachers
Association and National Education Association for demanding that he pay
fees to unions that support abortion and birth control. He had twice been
suspended for refusing to pay the fees. Although not a member of the unions,
he was required by the contract to pay union dues because he benefits from
their collective bargaining agreements. The compromise will see his fees
paid to a mutually agreed upon charity, and ensures that he will be
compensated for lost wages and some of his legal fees. [The
Republican]
Britain's Royal College of Nursing has announced that, following
consultation with its members, it objects to the legalization of assisted
suicide and 'active' euthanasia as contrary to "the core principles which
lie at the heart of nursing." The College specifically opposed Lord Joffe's
euthanasia bill, now before a committee of the House of Lords.[RCN news, 6
September] Britain's Voluntary Euthanasia Society, preparing for testimony
on the bill, asserted that of 790 adults polled, 82% wanted the law changed,
47% would help a suffering family member to obtain euthanasia, and 51%,
would seek euthanasia if suffering unbearably. The results of the poll are
sharply contested by Campaign Against Euthanasia because of the wording of
the questions. What can be safely said is that the contrast between the poll
results and the position of the Royal College of Nursing clearly
demonstrates that legalization of the procedure would cause significant and
widespread conflicts of conscience within the medical profession.
Clinicians at a university clinic in Groningen and Dutch judicial
authorities have developed a protocol for extending euthanasia to children
under 12 years old. Current law allows euthanasia for teenagers, parental
consent being required for teens under 16. The proposal has been condemned
by the vice-president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Bishop Elio
Sgreccia.
A joint statement from
the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the Archbishop of
Westminster, Cormac Cardinal Murphy O'Connor, opposes a private member's
euthanasia bill by Lord Joffe, 'Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill'. The
statement follows a letter to The Times of London from 750 Catholic priests
in the United Kingdom who oppose the Mental Capacity Bill on the grounds
that it would legalize euthanasia by omission. Joffe's bill is now before a
House of Lords committee and is also opposed by the British Medical
Association, Help the Aged, the Disability Rights Commission and Disability
Awareness in Action. The Mental Capacity Bill is at second reading in the
House of Commons.
On the other hand, the UK's Voluntary Euthanasia Society has sent the
House of Lords a petition with 80,000 signatures supporting euthanasia, and
claims that half of the repsondents in a survey would be willing to leave
the country for assisted suicide if they were terminally ill. Meanwhile, The
Guardian newspaper featured the Swiss assisted suicide organization,
Dignitas, which is reported to have assisted 22 British citizens to commit
suicide since 1998. [The Guardian, 2 September]
An IVF clinic in Sydney, Australia, is reported to be doing about 200 sex
selections annually at a cost of up to $13,000.00. Using IVF to select the
sex of infants continues to be ethically controversial. [Bioedge, 3
September]
The Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled that the state has the power to order
the withdrawal of life support from incompetent wards, even against the
objections of a guardian
ad litem. The case involved a mildly
retarded 54 year old black man who was placed on a ventilator after
suffering cardiac arrest. He died of natural causes while the case was in
litigation.
August
A French parliamentary committee has recommended that terminally ill
patients should be able to request that doctors "leave them to die", and
that family members of unconscious patients be permitted to give such
direction. While the report calls this "passive euthanasia" it is not clear
whether 'allowing the patient to die' means withholding extraordinary
treatment, ordinary treatment, withholding nutrition and hydration. The
first would not pose problems for most conscientious objectors.
French Health Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy plans to propose the
legalization of euthanasia by the end of the year. He characterized the new
law as instituting "the right to die with dignity." Legalization of
euthanasia would have a profound impact on health care workers who object to
it for reasons of conscience. [News
item]
Planned Parenthood Alberta is accusing physicians who are conscientious
objectors to abortion of professional misconduct, claiming that they may
"scare" patients with "misinformation" or "impose their moral beliefs." The
organization plans to compile a list of "anti-choice" physicians, and
suggests that patients report doctors to the province's regulatory authority
if they do not provide information on "all options" for their pregnancies,
including abortion. [Project
news release] [Project
response]
A registered nurse (called "nursing sisters" in South Africa) who refuses to
assist with abortions has not been allowed to work in an operating room
theatre since 2 May, 2004, according to a Doctors for Life International.
The organization has filed a legal brief in support of Sister Wilhelmien
Charles in a suit against the Kopanong hospital and South African Health
Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. Sister Charles is a senior nurse who has
been working at the hospital since 1997. Three years later, when the
hospital began to provide abortions, many staff members signed a petition to
the effect that they did not want to do abortions. The hospital stonewalled
attempts at correspondence by DFL. A spokesman for the regional health
department claimed said that he was unaware of the case and claimed that no
one is forced to perform abortions. [News
item]
89 year old Doris Smith of Louisiana will no longer receive assisted
nutrition or hydration because two of her children and her doctors have
ordered it stopped. Smith was incapacitated by a stroke. The Louisiana
Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the order by one of her other
children on the grounds that the decision conformed to the "living will"
that Smith had signed. The problem is that the will included a waiver of her
right to "life-sustaining procedures", and this has been interpreted to
included food and water. A number of health care workers called upon to
implement such directions may object to the practice for reasons of
conscience, since they understand that deliberately causing death by
dehydration and starvation is euthanasia. [News
item]
A controversy about the increasing number of caesarean sections in the
United Kingdom has led the The National Institute for Clinical Excellence to
issue a statement that women should have the right to a caesarean section
even if two doctors disagree. One if five births in the United Kingdom is by
caesarean section. Caesarean sections are not normally morally
controversial, since most health care workers do not object to the procedure
for reasons of conscience. However, in a particular case, a health care
worker who is convinced that the procedure will harm the mother and/or child
might decline to be involved. In any case, the notion that a patient has a
'right' to a surgical procedure, even when the attending physician
disagrees, could have implications for freedom of conscience. [The Guardian,
22 August, 2004]
The Pentagon has denied allegations in an article published in The Lancet
that US military medical staff were involved in the notorious abuse of
Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad, and have also been
complicit in similar abuses in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The
allegations were made by Dr. Steven H. Miles, a professor in the center for
bioethics at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Among other things, he claims that a physician and psychiatrist
helped plan and monitor the abusive interrogations at Abu Ghraib, that
medical records were falsified and that health care workers failed to report
what was taking place. [CNN]
Despite what is reported to be significant opposition to abortion among
South Africans, the South African Parliament passed an amendment to the
country's abortion law to allow abortions to be performed by registered
nurses (called "nursing sisters" or "sisters" in South Africa). The
amendment will also allow abortions to be performed in more health care
facilities. The Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) and
Doctors for Life have voiced concerns that conscientious objectors to
abortion will be pressured to participate in the procedure. The bishops
called upon Catholic health care workers to "insist on their constitutional
rights, respecting their freedom of conscience and to refuse to cooperate in
the performance of abortions." [SACBC
nrews release] [Doctors
for Life news release]
A child who was without a heartbeat for 25 minutes and was in a coma for 12
days following an accident is now recovering. Mason Forbes began breathing
on his own after his life support was cut off following a diagnosis of
'brain death'. He can now laugh, smile, and sit, and doctors are optimistic
that he will eventually be able to walk. The case illustrates why health
care workers may experience conflicts of conscience when required to
terminate life support or assisted nutrition and hydration [The Daily
Express, 19 August, 2004].
Newcastle university will use cell nuclear replacement to clone embryos in
order to obtain embryonic stem cells to treat Alzheimer's, diabetes and
Parkinson's disease. Permission for human cloning was given by the Human
Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) [BBC, 11 August, 2004].
Following lobbying by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service,
abortifacient drugs will be made more readily available to women in the
United Kingdom for abortions within nine weeks of conception. The first of
the two drugs used is to be administered by a physician, while the second,
which induces expulsion of what is supposed to be a dead fetus, is to be
taken by the woman at home two days later. BPAS argued that the arrangement
will be more economical. Its chief executive, said that it would "give women
more control over their own abortions." [The Sun, 9 August] In addition,
there are plans to give the abortifacient drugs to Irish women who go to
Britain from the Republic for abortions. They would take the second pill
after returning home.[The Sunday Times, 8 August]
One unexamined problem with the scheme is that women experiencing
complications, including incomplete abortions, will likely present at
hospital emergency rooms to have the abortions completed. There is likely to
be a conflict if a conscientious objector is faced with a woman who is
carrying a living fetus but who wants an incomplete chemical abortion
completed surgically. The problem has become a significant issue in South
Africa, and would be particularly serious in Ireland, where most
Obstetricians and Gynaecologists will not perform abortions for reasons of
conscience [Conscientious
Objection in Ireland (May, 2000)].
Proposed amendments to South Africa's abortion law will permit any health
facility with a 24-hour maternity service to perform abortions up to 12
weeks gestation and allow abortions to be performed by registered nurses,
traditionally called "nursing sisters" or "sisters" in South Africa. The
Christian View Network, Human Life International, Pro-Life South Africa and
the Evangelical Alliance are lobbying for a protection of conscience clause
because they fear that health care workers will eventually be deprived of
their freedom to avoid participation in abortion. Problems have already
arisen for conscientious objectors, either because they have had to deal
with abortions started by a previous shift, or abortions started by
physicians outside the hospital who have prescribed abortifacient drugs and
told their patients to go to emergency rooms deal with complications. [Independent
On Line] [Doctors
for Life news release]
Disability Awareness in Action (DAA), the National Centre for Independent
Living and The British Council of Disabled People have formed a coalition to
oppose the government's Mental Capacity Bill. They are concerned that the
bill will allow family members to force sterilization, withdraw medical
treatment, including nutrition and hydration. The concerns are shared by
many conscientious objectors in health care professions. [Disability Now , 4
August].
A policy of mandatory distribution of the potentially abortificacient
morning-after pill will be withdrawn by public health authorities. Health
and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson has acknowledged that the
current law does not support the policy. It has been reported that the
implementation of the policy resulted in the forced resignation of at least
11 nurses, and led 50 employees asked for reassignment. [Catholic World
News. 2 August]
An amendment to the South African abortion law is being opposed by
physicians because it will impose pressure on conscientious objectors in
hospitals "designated" to provide abortions. [News
release] [See also
Are State Doctors in the Western Cape willing to implement the Choice of
Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1996? An opinion survey conducted in the
Western Cape in November 1997.]
According to Dutch researchers, terminal sedation, a procedure intended to
render a patient in intractable pain unconscious, is being used in the
Netherlands in conjunction with withdrawal of food and fluids in order to
cause the death of a patient. They estimate that four to 10 percent of
patient deaths are caused in this way. The researchers from the Erasmus
Medical Centre and the Free University Medical Centre in Amsterdam also
reported that about 44% of patient deaths in the country are the result of a
'medical decision', such as assisted suicide or refusal or withdrawal of
treatment. [Expatica, 3 August]
July
Britain's High Court accepted the arguments of Leslie Burke, who suffers
from a degenerative brain condition, that present GMC guidelines that allow
doctors to withdraw food and fluids from patients contravene the European
Convention on Human Rights. The BBC reports that the GMC will either have to
appeal, or redraft its guidelines to incorporate a presumption that a
patient wants to live. [BBC,
30 July] Withdrawal of food and fluids from patients who are not dying
or near death is a morally controversial issue for some health care
professionals.
Jeremy Purvis, a member of the Scotland's parliament, is reported to be
drafting a bill to legalize euthanasia in Scotland. He argues that the bill
is simply a "natural progression" from rules that now permit withdrawal of
treatment. [Sunday Herald, 1 August]
Pharmacist Steve Mosher, who owns the only private pharmacy in Fabens,
Texas, refuses to dispense contraceptive pills because of concern that they
may have an abortifacient mechanism. Planned Parenthood in El Paso attacked
Mosher because he would not fill a prescription for a "legal product" and
was creating a "barrier" for women in Fabens. Mosher will dispense birth
control pills when they are prescribed for reasons other than contraception.
[El
Paso Times]
James Bogle, a London lawyer, has pointed out that the Mental Capacity Bill
permits non-medical proxies to force doctors to withdraw or withhold
treatment or nutrition in order to end a patient's life, with no provision
for conscientious objection by physicians. [The Telegraph, 28 July]
The North West Wales NHS representing a Bangor, North Wales Hospital has
postponed a request that the High Court decide whether or not it is obliged
to treat a six month old infant diagnosed with Edwards Syndrome. It appears
that, since most infants suffering from the syndrome die within a year of
birth, the Trust was of the view that there was no point in treating him.
The child has been at the hospital for four months. News reports do not
indicate that the child was near death. His mother opposed to application.
[BBC, 27 July]
Euthanasia supporters have convinced the Royal College of Nursing to
reconsider its opposition to euthanasia. The chair of the RCN's ethics
committee supported Lord Joffe's Assisted Dying bill last year. [Sunday
Herald, 25 July, 2004] Conscientious objectors among nurses will be
significantly affected should the College begin to support euthanasia. [See
Assisted Suicide: What Role for Nurses? ]
The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity is making available tapes of its
summer conference on freedom of conscience issues. [Full
Conference] [Plenary
Sessions only]
The Royal Society of London is hosting
conference from
September 30th to October 1st, 2004. Among the planned presentations:
- Procreative Liberty : Scope and Limits of Reproductive Freedom;
- When Does Life Begin: The Moral Status of the Human Embryo;
- Designer Babies: Choosing Our Genes, Changing Our Future;
- Why We Are Morally Obliged to Genetically Enhance Our Children;
- The Ethics of Human Reproductive Cloning; ES Cell Research and the
Moral Status of Human Embryos;
- Gay Science: Choosing Our Children's Sexual Orientation;
- Preconception Gender Selection: Choosing Our Children's Sex;
- Preventing the Existence of People with Disabilities;
- Godless Morality: Keeping Religion Out of Ethics.
The United Kingdom's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has
approved the conception of embryos with a view to selecting one to provide
stem cells for a two year old boy in Northern Ireland. Embryos not selected
for this use will presumably be frozen, used for research or destroyed.
Production of embryos for tissue donation has already taken place in the
United States and Australia.
The Family Planning Association is angry that only two of fifteen hospital
emergency departments in Northern Ireland dispense the potentially
abortifacient morning after pill. A third will dispense the pill only to
girls under 18 years old, and some doctors refuse to prescribe the drug for
reasons of conscience. It is possible that attempts will be made to force
conscientious objectors to dispense the drug, despite the fact that it is
widely available from physicians, clinics and can be purchased over the
counter at pharmacies. [BBC]
A woman whose child survived an attempted abortion has been awarded
$60,000.00 for stress and loss of income by the Supreme Court of British
Columbia, Canada. The court refused to award money for the raising of the
child. After the failed abortion, Prince George regional hospital offered
the woman money for a partial-birth abortion in the United States, but she
declined. The case differs somewhat from other wrongful birth cases because
the child is not handicapped. In this respect, it is a precedent that
concerns those performing abortions rather than conscientious objectors.
The Catholic bishops' conference of England & Wales stated that there are
grounds to believe that the draft Mental Capacity Bill is inconsistent with
the teaching of Pope John Paul II in Evangelium Vitae (the Gospel of
Life). An archbishop speaking for the conference noted that opponents of the
bill "many reasonable fears". While the conference does not believe that the
bill introduces permission for euthanasia, other critics insist that the
bill will legalize euthanasia by neglect. [CBCEW, July 2004] [SPUC media
release, 19 July, 2004] [See Warning sounded
about Mental Incapacity Bill]
Research indicates that only half of about 3,500 cases of euthanasia that
occur each year in the Netherlands are reported as required by law. The
Dutch health minister wants to be able to discipline doctors who ignore
'procedural' guidelines, since the public prosecution service concerns
itself only with those who disregard 'material' guidelines. Health care
institutions are being urged to appoint euthanasia consultants and establish
guidelines for the procedure [British
Medical Journal]. Increased expectation of participation in the
procedure is likely to cause problems for conscientious objectors.
National People First, the British Council of Disabled People,
Disability Awareness, and the Guild of Catholic Doctors are among the
critics of the United Kingdom's Mental Incapacity Bill. The Guild is
concerned that the definition of 'euthanasia' does not include euthanasia by
omission, and that the bill will lead to euthanasia: first, by withdrawal of
food and fluids, and later, by lethal injection [Guild
commentary]. Passage of the bill would have serious implications for
conscientious objectors.
A committee of the US House of Representatives has added a provision to a
spending bill that will prohibit the use of funds authorized by the bill by
any federal, state or local agency that discriminate against institutions
that do not provide or refer for abortions.
Those who normally do not object to artificial reproductive technology may,
nonetheless, encounter cases in which they may experience a conflict of
conscience. This is illustrated by the case of Helen McCrave, a woman in the
United Kingdom whose IVF treatment will be delayed for an indeterminate
period because she does not have blonde hair and blue eyes. The conditions
for treatment include a requirement that she donate some of her eggs to the
IVF facility, but the current demand is for eggs from blonde, blue-eyed
donors.[This is Plymouth, 14 July]
Arguments being made in favour of legalizing abortion in Nicaragua have been
criticized by the Nicaraguan Catholic bishops' conference. The country has a
pro-life constitution. Legalization of the procedure would have a profound
impact on health care workers who object to abortion.
https://news.consciencelaws.org/?p=10230
400 cases of euthanasia have been reported in Belgium since the procedure
was legalized two years ago. Questions have been raised about the accuracy
of the figure, while some claim that the number represents only the
disclosure of euthanasia that would have happened illegally. [Expatica
]
Judge Silvia Papa of the Chilean Federal Court has ordered the withdrawal of
all drugs containing Levonorgestrel, the key hormone in the morning-after
pill. The judge ruled that the pill can prevent implantation of the early
embryo, thus acting as an abortifacient. Abortifacient drugs are illegal in
Chile. The Ministry of Health has been attempting to force Chilean mayors to
distribute the drug, sparking opposition from authorities in the Catholic
Church. The controversy suggests that legalization of the drug would create
conflicts of conscience among some health care workers and others ordered to
distribute it.
BMA guidelines require that infants who survive abortions should receive the
same care and treatment as other infants, but it appears that the guidelines
have not been followed in a number of cases. The Sunday Times reported upon
six cases in which babies who survived abortions were denied medical
treatment until they died. One midwife stated that there was an 'unwritten
rule' that abortion survivors were not to be resuscitated. In one case, the
child lived for three days [The Sunday Times, 20 June, 2004] . 65% of the
delegates at the BMA's annual conference in Llandudno, Wales, reinforced the
guidelines by voting in favour of equal care and treatment for infants
surviving the procedure [Daily
Post]. That 45% of the delegates were in favour of causing the death of
the infants by neglect may be taken as an indicator of support for
infanticide in these cases. It also provides an explanation for the
existence of the practice. Similar problems were reported at the Foothills
Hospital in Calgary, Alberta [Nurses
At Foothills Hospital Rebel Over The Horrifying Results Of Late-Term
'Genetic Terminations']. The College of Physicians and Surgeons
of Alberta eventually responded by approving the lethal injection of infants
in utero prior to late term abortions to ensure that none are born
alive.
Statistics in the United Kingdom show that 114 abortions in 2002 were of
infants at 24 weeks gestation or more. The Sunday Times of 27 June, 2004,
reported that a child was born at 25 weeks gestation a few hours before a
scheduled abortion at Guy's Hospital, London. Abortion, neglect of abortion
survivors and killing by lethal injections in utero place
conscientious objectors among health care workers in difficult situations.
Andrew Graham of Fife, Scotland, has threatened to commit suicide
because he suffers from multiple sclerosis and is in constant pain. He has
asked that euthanasia be legalized.